Travel and explore South Africa!

South African National Parks offers a variety of accommodation types and standards. Prices are
dependent on location, size of unit and quality of experience. All of our South African National
Parks offer park/camp-run accommodation. Each park/camp has its own unique selection of
accommodation types.

Conserving nature since 1926

National parks offer visitors an unparalleled diversity of adventure tourism opportunities including
game
viewing, bush walks, canoeing and exposure to cultural and historical experiences. Conferences can
also be
organised in many of the parks. Read more...

2000 pics, thats a decent session!I'm glad I can help you out, we are all in the learning curve. Do you have a field guide?ok so here's what I think of your latest bunch#2. Grey Heron (you are right-nice one)Jurgen

No, don't have a field guide. One of those things you don't realize you're going to need while on holiday in SA. Looking back it would have been good to get one. Now I'm back in the Netherlands and fixing my photobook. Next safari will definitely include a field guide

As soon as I approach the Golden Gate/Addo part of my trip (working the pics) I'll probably have some more questions!

I saw this Grey Heron at a birding spot near Cape Town on 27 January 2010.It is a ringed bird with a RED ring on the right leg and a GREY (or metal) ring on the left leg.

I subsequently received information about this bird from Doug Harebottle which state that this particular bird was ringed as a chick at Rondevlei in 2003 which makes it 6+ years old.

I did a search and it seems the longevity of the Grey Heron may exceeds up to 25 years of age although the BTO infosheet on Grey Heron states that the typical lifespan of these birds are 5 years.

Euring (The European Union for Bird Ringing) has a record of a Grey Heron (Ring no: 73617) that was 35yrs 1mths old when it was shot. BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) has a record of a Grey Heron (Ring no: 1090038) that was ringed as a nestlling that was 23yrs 9mths 2days old when it was found dead.